you want to look at it. it is blunt, unembarrassed, they are bragging how the democratic candidates for the u.s. house won more than a million votes than their republican opponents, but the speaker of the house is a republican and presides over the republican majority in the 113th congress. how did they do it? they say they put up a firewall, that paved the way for the republicans retaining the house majority. in other words, we figured out a way to win even when the country doesn't vote for us. the same maps they do in the house they want to apply for the presidential election in every state they can get away with it. we have a ban on the show talking about 2016. this is a corner stone, nobody is allowed to talk about the 2016 election, at least until next november. this is not about who the candidates will be, this is about whether or not they vote for a democratic candidate, any democratic candidate, this is about whether or not it results in us having a democratic

president. this is going on in the states right now. hey, beltway, wake up. a helicopter crashes into a crane in london. snow causing trouble for commuters today. later today, president obama will offer the most xensz extensive proposals to curb gun rules. aenchts 150,000 kids could be stranded this morning and one world trade center is one step closer to reaching 1776 feet. good morning. we begin with breaking news in london today. black smoke was seen rising into the sky during the morning rush

hour. a helicopter crashed into a construction crane and then crashed near the river thames. the chopper fell and burning wreckage was seen in the street. there are reports of at least two people killed. british police say there was nothing to suggest a terrorism link. we have a reporter headed to the scene of the crash and we're expected to bring you more on the story. a big winter storm is working from the south to the northeast this morning and expected to be a travel nuisance for commuters. many in the south saw ice and causing dangerous conditions in memphis. rain spread into northern louisiana and arkansas. the sleet and snow mix made travel a mess in the dallas-ft. worth metro area. hundreds of flights in the nation's fourth busiest airport were canceled or delayed. bill karins is tracking this winter storm for us. bill, what will this mean for the northeast? >> it means a lot of school cancellations and delays out there.

headaches for parents. you have to worry about your kids and also worrying about getting to work yourself. as far as what we're going to deal with out there right now, heading out the door, connecticut, all portions of the lower hudson valley, massachusetts and now pushing into rhode island is where we're seeing the heaviest bursts of snow. we had a lot of sleet overnight. so northern new jersey, central new jersey and the coastal areas of connecticut and even the north coast of long island dealing with that crunchy stuff which makes it difficult for the plows and sidewalks will be slippery. new york city hovering at 32 degrees. be careful. could be a few icy spots. overall, it's mostly been rain. philadelphia is fine. baltimore, d.c., you're warming up. all rain for you. across central pennsylvania, pennsylvania turn like will be dealing with some of the snowy conditions from last night. that is beginning to taper off. treacherous driving this morning. now yesterday we had the ice in mississippi. it's now warmer there. slowly improving. overnight we had a little ice in tennessee. temperatures warmed up now.

so we're not so much dealing with too many problems in areas around nashville and also into louisville and lexington. much of west virginia is warming up. they're mostly dealing with rain. travel on the east coast today, the airports will be a mess in all areas of the northeast today, especially new york city up into boston. philadelphia airports dealing with rain. a lot of rain later today especially in areas of georgia. some rain will push into virginia and washington, d.c., and baltimore and maryland areas. as far as the total accumulations go with this storm, we're mostly looking at a three to five inch event across new england. south coast of new england will be dealing mostly with sleet and mixing in with a little snow. only zero to an inch. and in areas of central connecticut, probably two to three inches. four inches across the catskills. again, not a blockbuster snow event. the timing of this on a full day of work and school for so many is what is causing it to be such a headache. >> thank you, bill. last night new york became

the favorite state in the nation to change its gun laws in the wake of last month's shooting mass keer in newtown, connecticut. democratic governor andrew cuomo signed into law a sweeping package of gun control reforms after it was overwhelmingly passed by the state assembly. >> i'm proud to be a new yorker because new york is doing something. because we are fighting back. >> the new law expands a ban on assault weapons and reduces the size of allowable gun magazines to seven rounds from ten. it also includes measures to limit access to firearms by the mentally ill and imposes stiffer penalties on those who use guns while committing a crime. president obama will be offering a sweeping new gun legislation of his own. though any proposal to ban assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines is likely to face stiff opposition in congress. nbc's tracie potts has the details now from washington. what are some of the measures we're expecting the president to propose today? >> reporter: in addition to those bans which congress has to

act on, we're told that the president today will act on some but not all of the 19 areas that vice president biden's task force says he can do by executive order. chief among them, universal background checks that would close what many have called a loophole where you can buy a gun at gun shows or online without a background check. the president, we're told, also expected to stiffen penalties for people who fail background checks, lie on background checks, retailers who skip doing background checks and also those who sell multiple weapons to felons. now the nra likely to oppose those. they have already said in response to new york's law that tougher laws do not reduce crime or produce safety. in addition to the laws regarding background checks, the president's also expected to talk about mental health and video games as part of this comprehensive package he'll announce later this morning. >> tracie potts, thanks so much.

in the face of gun control reform, the nra is fighting back. a new web ad on the stand and fight website calls the president "an elitist hypocrite." here's the whole thing. take a look. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? he is just another elite it hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. protection for their kids and gun free zones for ours. >> so what do you think of this ad? we want to know. tweet us @first lookmsnbc. chuck hagel may be getting closer to win confirmation of secretary of defense.

he won the backing of two of the senate's strongest supporters of israel, chuck schumer of new york and barbara boxer of california will vote to approve hagel. but the top republican on the senate arms services committee says he and hagel have philosophical differences on the issues and he will not be supporting his fellow republican. boeing's newest passenger jet, the 787 dreamliners have been grounded by japan's leading airlines. a dream liner was evacuated after it made an emergency landing today. a cockpit message showed battery problems, the latest in a series of issues including a battery fire and fuel leaks. japan airlines and alnipon suspended all of the dream liner flights today. the faa is monitoring the incidents. once safety checks are complete, the planes could be back in the air on thursday. and now here's your first look at this morning's dish of "scrambled politics." during his first term, president

obama held fewer news conferences than george w. bush or bill clinton. over four years the president held 79 such briefings, that is ten fewer than mr. bush and 54 fewer than president clinton. starting this weekend, president obama's limousine will carry license plates with the phrase taxation without representation. it's a protest over the district of colombia not having voting representatives in congress. president clinton used the plates but george w. bush chose to use a different design without the protest phrase. white house is changing the signature threshold from 25,000 to 100,000 for official responses to petitions on the website. not a bad move. it comes after a request that government build a star wars like death star that got enough signatures for an official white house response. and in utah, george burnett, a pro oil activist and small business owner known as the i love drilling guy is using his new smoothy shop to take a stand against liberal spending.

he charges liberals $1 more for than conservatives for a 16 ounce smoothy. >> i'm very open about it. i'm going to charge more. and i have liberals come in. and pay the extra dollar surcharge. actor dicaprio came up with the cash at a charity auction. he and another bidder joined forces to offer $400,000 to spend the day with president bill clinton. and seth myers nominated hillary clinton for qg's list of 100 hottest women of the 21st century. he said he thinks somebody getting sexier every year is hillary clinton. and that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." straight ahead, a last minute death row appeal but not from the man facing the electric chair. plus, the duke and duchess of cambridge are hiring. people are openly admitting a more personal relationship with their smart phones. and a principal suspended spore going terminator.

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welcome back. here's some other stories making news this morning. a suspect is being questioned by police after shooting at a community college campus in kentucky. a gunman fired into a vehicle killing two people and wounding one. drivers of school buses in new york city go on strike this morning. 152,000 students have to find another way to get to class. the city plans to hand out metro cards for the subway and reimburse families for taxis or car mileage. mark sanford is expected to announce today that he'll return to politics. sanford will run for his old congressional seat. he resigned four years ago following revelations of an extramarital affair. robert gleesing is scheduled to die today in virginia's electric chair for killing a cell mate. the supreme court is being asked by his lawyers to block the

execution saying he's not competent to waive his appeals. over to wall street. the dow opens at 13,534 after gaining 27 points yesterday. the s&p 500 and nasdaq were mixed. overseas markets were down today. nikkei shot down 278 points while the hang seng fell 24. a late day boost pushed the s&p 500 to a five year high. we'll see if that trend conditions when goldman sachs and j.p. morgan chase defend the best of the breed titles with the fourth quarter earnings reports due out before the bell. jp morgan is expected to release the findings of an internal review on the whale trade debacle that led to $6 billion in losses last year. bonuses for several thousand morgan stanley workers railroad reportedly arrive in the form of ious. they'll pay out incentives for high earning employees in installments over the next three years. the nation's credit rating hangs in the balance once again as fitch threatened to downgrade

if lawmakers fix the country's debt burden. geithner warned that the u.s. will reach the credit limit between mid-february and early march. mark zuckerburg released a new graph search. ate louz users to mind their friend's data for information they may otherwise google or yelp. they're talking about the strange name and the limited function within the social network. william and kate are sifting through applications for a super servant to do just about everything, cook, cleaning, drivinging, walking dogs and polishing silver. so just how close are you to your virtual assistant? apparently if you made a personal connection to iphone's siri or google's now, you're like 57% of one group of smart phone owners who name their virtual helpers but they also enjoy their sass and sense of humor. and finally, google is wishing a happy 112th birthday

to frank joseph zamboni jr. sports highlights including a college basketball upset are straight ahead. plus, a high school principal uses the terminator to make a point with his students but not everyone is amused. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. is reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. in the middle of the night it can be frustrating. it's hard to turn off and go back to sleep. intermezzo is the first and only prescription sleep aid approved for use as needed in the middle of the night

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has some risk of dependency. common side effects are headache, nausea, and fatigue. so if you suffer from middle-of-the-night insomnia, ask your doctor about intermezzo and return to sleep again. ♪ and return to sleep again. excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app. welcome back. here's your first look at the other news going on around america. we begin in colorado.

rescuers raced to pull a bird hunter from an icy river. he crashed through the ricy surface. he spent over 30 minutes in the freezing water before firefighter was able to reach him. next to rhode island where opponents of same sex marriage packed the state house to protest. they're trying to spur lawmakers towards banning legislation that would allow gay and leez bean couples mary. >> the suspension came down after the principal showed students a video of him playing a killing machine on school grounds. a sky scraper is one step closer to being the tallest in the western hemisphere. the nearly 70 ton base of the power was hoisted to the 104 rnlg floor of the trade center. it will stand 1,776 feet over manhattan. and finally, a detroit based

technology company is adding a little hollywood to the north american international auto show. the company is using 007's prop to show how they can connect their cars to the internet. very nice. in sports, a couple upsets in college basketball. second ranked indiana lost to wisconsin for the tenth straight time. ouch. the badgers led by ten points as they beat the hoosiers 64-59. in new york, st. john's staged a strong come back in the second half against notre dame. the red storm held on to beat the fighting irish 67-63. now to the nba, blake griffin showed some impressive moves as he scored 19 points for the clippers against the rockets. and even without chris paul, los angeles beat houston 117-109. now to brooklyn. the nets passing helped give them a second half lead as they surged past the raptors in the third quarter and beat toronto 113-106. it's the seventh win in a row

and they're 9-1 under the interim coach. miss alabama katherine web is drawing lots after tension since she stole the spotlight from her boyfriend a.j. mccarron during the national championship game. webb treated, so zited to be chosen to cover the super bowl 47 lm h. rt for inside edition on new orleans. she beats her boyfriend to the envelope fl. and here the money shot contest you have to see to believe. an atlanta hawks fans throws the shot overhand and gets stuck between the back of the rim and the back board. they awarded him the $1,000 prize anyway. and now for another look at the weather, here's nbc's meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. >> the worst part of this storm is going to be this morning in areas of new england especially. that's where we'll have the most significant travel impacts and the most school cancellations and delays. a lot of delays out of this storm. the snow is really just begun to accumulate through areas of connecticut, massachusetts, and

rhode island. we had a lot of sleet overnight in northern new jersey and back into areas of central pennsylvania. snow tapering off through pennsylvania and southern new york. as far as totals go, enough to plow from the catskills and hudson valley through much of massachusetts and northern connecticut and rhode island and then a little plowing is needed around portland and areas of new hampshire. three inches for them. not a big deal. this hasn't been the winter for snow there. the forecast for new york city southward today, no problems on the roads whatsoever from d.c. all the way up to new york and even pennsylvania. the roads will be clearing up during the day. the midwest is looking okay as we warm up after your little recent arctic air outbreak. once again, this morning until 2:00, the worst of the road conditions in new england. >> all right. thanks so much, bill. now to baby animals, a u krin zoo added two new additions to the population. two rare siberian tiger cubs were born at the zoo this month. the orange and black stripe fee lines were cared for by the

zoo's save to ensure their safety. they're two of an estimated 200 to 400 siberian tigers left in the world. the species was nearly extinct 50 years ago. a not so fond mile high memory for actor tony danza. a new man in elton john's life and the man who says he has tiger blood is about to be a granddad. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. djibouti, africa, 2004. the battle of bataan, 1942. [ all ] fort benning, georgia, in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto-insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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everybody is talking about oprah's interview lance armstrong where he finally admitted to doping. get this. the interview supposedly lasted close to three hours.

so it's sort of like a regular interview but on steroids. president obama's inaugural parade will feature eight floats including a hawaii float to honor his birthplace and illinois float to honor the first lady's home state and a kenyan float just to mess with republicans. why not? well it's time now for entertainment news. adding insult to injury for tony danza, "the new york post" is reported the danza told fellow first class travelers he caught the flu after he vomited into an air sickness bag. kate upton had a different story saying i found out that lisa marie benson has a phobia of throwing up. it's funny the guy next to her is hung over. she was referring to danza but kate missed reruns of "taxi" and "who's the boss" and didn't recognize him. amanda bynes resurfaced with her cheek piercing. charlie sheen is going to be a grandfather now that his

28-year-old daughter is pregnant. her mother is sheen's high school girlfriend. elton john sewn husband david furnish welcomed a baby boy to their family on friday. the second son completes our family in the most precious and perfect way. river phoenix's last film "dark blood" will make a debut at the miami international film festival 20 years after the actor died of a tragic drug overdose. finally, prince harry was named town and country's most eligible bachelor. he topped that list that included tim tebow, jack nicholson and george clooney. finally, vatican city is home to a cover model. his personal secretary is promoted not only to archbishop but also to the front page of italy's vanity fair magazine. he is known as gorgeous george. papal assistant's headline says it's not a sin to be beautiful. a spokeswoman says the archbishop did